I Know My Mother👩🏽(IKMM)✅

Tension

Without warning, the snake's head lunged at Nneka's throat. Mama Agnes was about to jump to save Nneka, but Dennis flung his mug at her. While she fumed and wiped the blood off her leg, Dennis mouthed a warning to her. 'If you move, we'll all die.' Mama Agnes forced herself to relax in her chair, watching the snake tickle its fangs on Nneka's neck. "If she is distracted, Rukkaiyah will kill her. If you distract her, Rukkaiyah will kill all of us." Doris addressed Mama Agnes. Mama Agnes slumped back into her chair. The secret juju spies she planted around the compound would give them enough time to deal with Nneka. 

She needed the girl to repay her grudges with Nana. Humble and Azeez secretly smirked at her. Doris would never disappoint them with her schemes. Mama Agnes's eyes furrowed her eyebrows as she noticed their exchange. Doris raised her hand to scratch her nose. Her blouse sleeve gracefully slid down her arm. Mama Agnes saw a faint black tattoo of a crescent moon. Her heart sunk even more. She glared at Dennis, cursing the boy for bringing them into this mess. Would she lose her favorite grandchild now? This life never balanced for her.

Dennis panicked internally. His foster mother told him to bring Agnes and Nneka here. He worked with her to expose Doris and her accomplices in the juju black market. When the little girl opened the gate, he spotted a black figure darting through the shadows. It stopped as soon as it noticed Dennis saw it. The little girl's behavior made his heart race. Before she helped Mama Agnes, the girl removed her shoes. His foster mother warned him to avoid the girl's feet. Doris and Azeez rubbed her feet with poison juju so that if she touched a living thing with them, they'd be poisoned. The catch was that the poison only worked on people who ate dried lemongrass. While they tried to escape the man in the red truck, Dennis secretly swallowed a capsule of dried lemongrass. It allowed him to identify the man. As he suspected, he was one of Doris's people. They would react when dried lemongrass was near them.

Dennis hid some dried lemongrass in his pockets. Pretending to relax on the chair, he shuffled the grass while humming. His foster mother told him to do this while Nneka talked with Rukkaiyah. After one hour, she would bring reinforcements to rescue them. Dennis brought them here so Nneka could find out more about her mother, and why she killed her father. Before the night that he and Nneka went to Jide's house, his foster mother warned him that Nana would come to revenge herself on the man. When she rescued them all, they would know more about the dangerous situation they were in-which grew worse with each moment. Even Mama Agnes did not know that Jide lived a secret life.

Doris, Azeez, and Humble fidgeted with their clothes and cups. Doris looked the most uncomfortable, clutching her neck periodically. From the moment she saw Dennis, she hated the boy. Doris felt that he would ruin her plans today! Nana kidnapped her daughter a long time ago, around the time she heard that Mama Agnes started working for that dirty Landlady. Azeez and Humble were Nana's people! This woman wanted Nneka for something, but she didn't know why. She glared nervously at Dennis, hoping that he wouldn't remove the grass in his pocket. All Nana told her to do was to make Nneka answer Rukkaiyah's questions.

She finally had the chance to fulfill her promise! Her child was alright, but if she couldn't do what she was told, maybe she might join her in death. The small girl, Faika, was a zombie, like the one that chased them here. Her name was Tolu, but Nana ate her soul and turned her into a 'zombie.'

Zombies were like the mercenaries of the juju world. There were two levels: Pikin and Oga. Pikin level zombies like that driver could pass off as humans, acting like them, talking and behaving like them, but their movements lagged. Oga level zombies behaved exactly like humans-many of them roamed Lagos daily. Each zombie level had its weaknesses and flaws. The Pikin level zombies were destroyed by Jagan, the mixture of kola nuts Dennis gave Nneka on the road. They also had a faint pink cross on their foreheads that could never be hidden. Whether they disguised it with makeup or cut off the flesh there, it would still show. 

The Oga level zombies were harder to deal with. You needed Jagan Double, another kolanut mix. This one just had an extra white nut. The white nut prevented the Oga level zombie from resurrecting. Their physical flaw was a dagger-shaped mole on their foreheads, necks, or upper chest regions. Like the Pikin level's pink cross, it could never be hidden. Both zombies took advantage of fashion and cosmetics to disguise their marks to non-practitioners. For those who knew juju, it was best to avoid them. Unless you had Jagan or Jagan Double, mind your business.

Azeez seized Doris's Jagan Double by the time Dennis and the others were avoiding those trucks on the road. Humble brought in Faika and threatened Doris to pretend she was her housegirl. Azeez and Humble sat there to make sure that Nneka would talk to Rukkaiyah without fail. As soon as they finished, they would kill Dennis and Mama Agnes, then take Nneka to her mother. Rukkaiyah began to move erratically, whipping the ceiling with her mightly tail. Nneka's time would soon be up.

Mama Agnes began to see the situation more clearly. While in the car, she smelt lemongrass coming from Dennis's direction. When Faika led her into the house, Mama Agnes spotted a dagger-shaped mole on her neck. As they waited in front of the gate, Dennis slipped a small paper into her hands, which she opened and read quickly. It read,

Trust me. No matter what happens, don't show that you know anything, or we'll die. My foster mother will come and rescue us.

Mama Agnes ate the note while Faika wasn't looking. Now that Dennis was moving his hand in his pocket, she realized that she should prepare herself. They had about ten minutes until Nneka finished with Rukkaiyah. She prayed the Lord's prayer, and she hoped that Nneka was alright.

Azeez and Humble watched the room. Azeez agreed to help Nana because she promised him her body. Even with his five wives and three mistresses, this man refused to settle down. Women like Nana were his favorite: Harsh, wicked, and beautiful. He knew that Nana promised Humble the same thing, but it wouldn't stop him. His mistresses already slept with at least three other men, so how would that affect him?

Humble agreed to Nana's request to sleep with her and steal from her. He didn't know how she got it, but she had a large chest filled with precious ingredients. To get those kinds, you needed to kill people. He planned to slip poison into her mouth while they kissed on the bed. Like Azeez, he agreed to sleep with her because of her body. It had been a while since he found a woman like her. The last one had her corpse thrown in front of her father's house. Plenty of men surrounded her, but they were her most capable people.

Neither of them expected that she would betray them.